Title: White Oleander Author: Janet Fitch

Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, 

Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes - 

each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned - becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery.

Astrid turns 13 years old buried, half-forgotten in the depths of L.A. foster care.  Her mother in prison for murder, her father barely a bedtime story, an enigma, gone when she was just a baby.  Foster care means getting used to new people, new places.  In her first, true foster home there are four other children already living there; two from foster care like herself, the other two, now returned to their mother, were also once part of the foster care system.  Her foster mother, Starr, `...busty and leggy, with a big smile...` lives just outside of L.A. in a trailer with `so many parts added on you had to call it a house.`

Astrid likes it there with the other children.  She goes back to school and even begins to attend church which her mother hates.  They communicate mostly through letters with the occasional visit.  Even with her mother behind bars Astrid experiences family life with Starr, her foster siblings, and Uncle Ray, Starr`s man, the father figure of nearly 50 who teaches her how to play chess.

`Dear Astrid,

Do not tell me how much you admire this man... Never lie down for the father. I forbid it... 

Mother.`

But Astrid knows her mother is far away and can`t control her anymore.

Starr suspects something is going on between Astrid and Ray behind her back and begins drinking again causing havoc among the family.  Her son breaks his arm and everyone has to lie about it to Social Services.  In spite of this Astrid continues to behave inappropriately, pushing Starr to her limit.  In a fiery burst of violence Astir is hospitalized and moved to a new foster home in Van Nuys.  `... a kingdom of strip malls and boulevards`where her `role in the... house was revealed... babysitter, pot scrubber, laundry maid, beautician` for Ed and Marvel Turlock.  There Astrid spends her days high on Percodan trying to heal from the wounds from her last home.  She chooses survival as her religion and tried not to hate her position in the household.  She becomes infatuated with their exotic neighbour, Olivia Johnstone, `a woman who would throw out a handmade tortoiseshell comb just because it was missing a tooth.` Astrid finds it in her garbage as she tried to find out more about the mysterious woman, a woman Marvel uses racist, derogatory language when talking about.

Astrid succeeds in entering Olivia`s life and is delighted when she offers to take her out for shopping and lunch.  They become what Astrid considers to be friends.  She lives for the days when she can be with Olivia and is nearly heartbroken to come home one day to find Olivia gone somewhere without saying where or saying goodbye.  Sullen and angry and alone on her birthday Astrid takes a walk to clear her head and finds herself in a dark alley with a pack of stray dogs.  They attack and Astrid winds up back in the hospital where they sew up the gashes on her face with black stitching thread.  In a way she`s glad the world can finally see her pain, that it`s no longer hidden.

It`s not until Christmas does Astrid venture back over to Olivia`s knowing her friend has yet to see the jagged wounds crisss-crossing her face and body.  Olivia is happy to see her but shocked to see Astrid`s mangled face.  Olivia pours them both a brandy to celebrate Christmas together.  Astrid drinks too much and wakes up with a pounding hangover, alcohol throbbing through her scars.  She tries to get home before Marvel knows she`s missing but Marvel is up, outside, and see`s Astrid leaving Olivia`s house.  Marvel goes crazy, dragging Astrid away, shouting obscenities and abuses at the woman next door, who is thankfully sleeping in the back of the house.  Marvel won`t stand for it and the first day back at school after the Christmas holiday the social worker shows up to take Astrid to a new home.

`[She] thought of the lies Marvel would tell the kids... that [she`d] died or ran off.  But... that wasn`t Marvel... She`d think up something... you could paint on a Franklin mint plate.  That [she] went to live... on a farm, where [they] had ponies and ate ice cream all day.`

Instead, she moves to a big, beautiful home in Hollywood where Amelia Ramos, seemingly refined, polite, nice, padlock`s the fridge and makes the girls go without food.  `Hunger dominated every moment, hunger and its silent twin, the constant urge to sleep.`  Astrid begins to salvage the remnants of lunches her classmates throw away, eagerly eating their discarded tuna sandwiches, cartons of yogurt.  Her mother writes demanding she call her social worker every day until they find her a new placement.  It works, she finds herself headed off to a couple who are looking to adopt.

Astrid meets and immediately feels welcome by Claire Richards `with her wide, love-me smile.`  At first it`s just Astrid and Claire.  Her husband, Ron, travels a lot for his job and is quite often away for long periods of time.  Astrid is anxious about meeting him knowing all too well how different his being there would be.  `Women always put men first.  That`s how everything [get`s] screwed up.`

After living with them for some time, enjoying her role as beloved daughter, Astrid realizes there is something wrong with Claire.  She watches as her new mother sinks lower and lower into depression.  Astrid tries to warn Ron, asks him to stay home more.  He leaves anyway.  Astrid tries to comfort Claire, spends the night with her to keep her from getting lonely, trying to pull her out of her black mood.  Unsuccessful, she wakes up to find Claire dead, the last few pills from a prescription medication bottle lying on the floor beside her.  Astrid is alone again, the only one left to keep Claire`s stories, her memories.  She takes them and what little belongs to her to the next stop; a temporary stay at Mac`s.  `MacLaren Children`s Center was in a way a relief.  The worst had happened.  The waiting was over.`

There she meets a boy, Paul Trout, a boy who understands her.  `The girls called him [her] boyfriend, but it was just another word it didn`t quite capture the truth. Paul... was the only person... [she] could talk to.`  It`s not long before he gets placed in another foster home, leaving her alone again facing the decisions of her future with no help at all.  She can`t stay at Mac so she chooses to go home with what will be her last foster mother, Rena Grushenka, a Russian woman with `coal-black hair... a hole in the charcoal afternoon.`  She is sexual, materialistic, eager to get and spend money.  They scour the streets on garbage day looking for clothes, small appliances, anything to sell.  Every hard earned penny goes to drugs, or booze.  Astrid barely recognizes her life and is content to get absorbed by her last year in foster care, her mother all the while clamouring for her attention from prison.  

White Oleander is a beautifully haunting book full of vivid description and intricate story telling.  

It is actually my favourite book and has been for years.

Click here to purchase White Oleander.

Title: The Great Gatsby Author: F. Scott Fiztgerald

We meet Nick Caraway as he rents a house 'in one of the strangest communities in North America... due East of New York... 20 miles... in the ... Long Island Sound' called 'West Egg.'

He has two friends, 'Daisy...[his] second cousin once removed' and her husband, Tom Buchanan who knew Nick in college.  At their house he meets Jordan Baker, a professional golfer, who suggests that since he lives on the West Egg he must know Gatsby.  She also reveals that Tom has another woman, a lover, in New York.  Nick has no desire to meet this woman, but being friends with Tom and new to the area he inevitably accompanies Tom to NY where he does meet the other woman.

'She was in the middle 30's, and fairly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously.  Her face... contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her.'  Nick is introduced and discovers her name is Myrtle.  They spend the afternoon in NY with Myrtle, her sister Catherine and their neighbours.  The party spends it's time drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes, though Nick is not eager to stay long, nor visit again. 

He spends most of his days watching the goings-on of his neighbour, who he found out from Jordan was Mr. Gatsby himself, thrower of extravagant parties.

'On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus bearing partiers to and from the city... people were not invited - they [simply] ended up at Gatsby's door... Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all...'

Nick, having been invited, attends one of these parties and after being overwhelmed by a myriad of people's faces, ladies dresses, sights and sound and smells from a thousand different sources, he is relieved to see Jordan, a familiar face in a strange crowd.  There's a lot of speculation about the host though no one seemed to know him at all, including Jordan and Nick.  Some think Gatsby was a spy in the army, that he'd killed a man.  During a lull in a later conversation, one of the men recognize Nick from serving time in the army.  They talk for some time about the army, life, the party.  Nick mentions that he got a hand delivered invitation from the host himself.

'For a moment [the other man] looked... as if he failed to understand.

"I'm Gatsby," he said suddenly.  "... I thought you knew, old sport."

He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly.  It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it...'

Since they reside next door to each other Nick and Gatsby become pretty good friends.  He asks Nick, in an extremely round-about way to personally invite his cousin, Daisy, over for tea, just the three of them.  He reveals that he knew Daisy years before and that he is still in love with her after all that time.  He liked to throw the parties hoping she'd come, but she never has.  Nick agrees and ends up chaperone to the lovers first date since they were young.

After the rendezvous Gatsby manages to invite her and Tom to his next party.

'Tom's arrogant eyes roamed the crowd.  "We don't go around very much," he said.  "... I don't know a soul here."'

Daisy allows him to sit and eat dinner at another table, allowing her and Gatsby time to sneak away. Tom is unimpressed with the party, with Gatsby.

'"I'd like to know who he is and what he does," insists Tom.  "And I think I'll make a point of finding out."'

After they leave Gatsby is disappointed with the evening. 

'"She didn't like it," he insisted.

He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she... go to Tom and say: "I never loved you."

"I wouldn't ask to much of her," [Nick] warns.  "You can't repeat the past."'

But Gatsby is determined to find a way to turn back the clock inviting Daisy over for afternoon tea on many occasions. One day an invitation arrives asking both Gatsby and Nick to Daisy's for lunch the next day where Daisy makes a show of kissing Gatsby when Tom is out of the room.  Jordan, who is also a guest for lunch, whispers to Nick that Tom is talking to his girlfriend on the phone.  Tom is none the wiser to the speculations of his lunch party and hospitably offers Gatsby a tour of the home.  Daisy, sick of the stifling summer heat, suggests they all go into NY.  Tom becomes annoyed at the obvious chemistry between Gatsby and Daisy and challenges her offer by insisting everyone go.  Tom insists on driving Gatsby's car.

'"... you take my coupe and let me drive your[s]..."  The suggestion was distasteful to Gatsby.'

Daisy offers to ride with Gatsby while Nick and Jordan go with Tom, though he promises to refuel the vehicle for Gatsby.  They stop, not far, at Myrtle's husband's gas station.  There he tells Tom they want to head out west.

'"Your wife does!" exclaimed Tom, startled.

[Wilson] reveals he's found out something funny about his wife a few days ago.

"That's why I want to get away," remarked Wilson.'

Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic.  His wife and his mistress... were slipping precipitately from his control.'

The party ends up at the Plaza Hotel.  There, in the oppressive heat Tom confronts Gatsby.  He accuses him of trying to steal his wife.

'"Your wife doesn't love you," said Gatsby quietly.  "She's never loved you.  She loves me."'

Daisy is caught in the middle of a battle of love between the past and the present.  She breaks down accusing Gatsby of asking for too much and Tom for being so vulgar.  Gatsby insists that she's leaving Tom for him.  That's when it all falls apart.  Daisy, not used to such raw, exposed feelings, retreats back into herself, back into her comfortable world.  Seeing himself the victor over his wife's heart Tom demands she and Gatsby return in his car, alone offering to take Jordan and Nick in his coupe.

On the way back to the West Egg they pass Wilson's garage where they previously refueled the car with gas.  There they find 3 or 4 cars and a crowd of people.  After stopping to investigate what's shook their tiny community they discover the body of Myrtle Wilson wrapped in a blanket, motionless, dead, struck by a speeding, yellow vehicle which sounds suspiciously like Gatsby's car.  The police are there asking questions, taking notes, statements.  Tom does not tell them the car belonged to Gatsby, though he makes sure Wilson knows exactly who car it was who struck and killed his wife.  This, coupled with the fact that he knew his wife was cheating on him, Wilson draws the conclusion that Gatsby is the culprit and vows to take revenge on the man who took his wife.

Being Gatsby's closest friend Nick finds himself alone with the truth.

The Great Gatsby brings the raw emotion of lust, betrayal, societal pressures and the truth about people, about friends.  The novel succeeds in tearing away the gossamer veil that money can but to reveal the bitter, savage truth about the human condition.

Click here to purchase The Great Gatsby.

Title: Forever Interrupted Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary.  on a rain New Year's Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one.  She isn't expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross.  their chemistry is instant and electric.  Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again.  Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love.  By May, they've eloped.


Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact.  Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room.  At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met - and who doesn't even know Elsie exists.

Interweaving Elsie and Ben's charmed romance with Elsie and Susan's healing process, Forever Interrupted will remind you that there's more to one way to find a happy ending.

Elsie Porter, ready to give up on ever finding love, runs into Ben while picking up a pizza.

'He looked handsome in a way that suggested he didn't realize just how handsome he was... He was tall and lean with broad shoulders and strong arms.'

He asks her for her number and texts the next morning eager to see her for lunch.  Excited, Elsie gets ready too early and decides to go for a walk to lose her jitters, only to find she's locked herself out of her apartment.  She remembers a doggy door installed by the previous owners all the way up in her balcony door.  She tries and tries to climb up onto her balcony with the intent of fitting through the doggie door.

Ben arrives for their date and finds her in the awkward attempt.  He volunteers to ascend for her.  At first he thinks the doggy door too small, but after some intense wiggling he gets through.  He's her hero.  He promises to take her on a 'true adventure' which turns out to be a run-down, out-of-the-way taco stand.  After she insists they go for her favourite dessert in East L.A.

'"Gelato," [Elsie] says.'
'"Gelato?" he said... "We're racing across town for Gelato?"'

The Gelato is delicious and they're having such a great time together neither of them want the day to end.

'"What if we go back to your place?" he suggested.  "I promise I won't get handsy."'

'What's wrong with handsy?"' she teased.

To their delight the forgotten remains of unopened New Years champagne sits, waiting, in her fridge.  They waste the afternoon drinking and kissing.  Suddenly, it's evening and they're hungry.  They agree on Chinese.  Still reluctant for the evening to end she invites him to stay overnight, to sleep, she insists and all the time Ben continues with his 'gentlemanly behaviour.'

They part that morning eager to see each other again.  They meet for dinner later.  He worries they're going to fast, though they  come to agree it feels natural.  Elise thinks maybe they're crazy to have such a strong connection.  She compares them to a supernova.

'"It's some sort of start or explosion that's so powerful it can emit the same amount of energy that the sun will emit over it's entire lifetime but it does it in, like, two months and then dies."'

They agree on five weeks, where, at the end, they'll assess how well they're getting along.

'"... if... we just aren't jiving, we've only wasted five weeks."

'[Elsie] asked.  "Jiving?"'

At the end of the five weeks Ben admits, 'suddenly serious, "I made up the whole five week thing because I was afraid I'd tell you I loved you too soon and you wouldn't say it back and I'd be embarrassed..."'

He also admits he hasn't told his mom about Elsie yet.

'[Elsie] was confident enough by this point that [she] had Ben's heart, that the issue... was not [her].'

Elsie cannot understand but tries to act like it's no big deal.

'"I mean, you'll tell her eventually."'

When Elsie tells her best friend, Ana, that Ben is moving in Ana thinks she's crazy.  Elsie just smiles as if Ana doesn't even know what she wants.  Living with Ben is fun and exciting.  Elsie loves having him around so often.  The transition is smooth, their whole relationship is smooth.  At the end of the month, in a haze of doctor prescribed pain meds he asks her to marry him.  The idea thrills her and she is afraid to admit the truth to herself.

'[She] needed him in the future... [she] wanted him to be the father of [her] children..."

'"I think we should get married."'  Ben repeats after the brain numbing effect of the painkillers wears off.  '"I'm not joking," he says... "I want to be with you for the rest of my life and I know that it is soon, but I would like to marry you."' He echoes what is bouncing through her own mind.  Overjoyed, Elsie accepts.

Ben starts talking about planning a wedding but Elsie isn't close to her parents and shies away from the idea of a big wedding, even a small wedding.

'"If it were up to me, there wouldn't be anyone there," she says.'

'"... we're going to Vegas, right?  Isn't that how people elope?"'  en quickly warms up to the idea and the two of them pack to leave, eager to get married as soon as possible.

'"[They] were two hours outside Las Vegas when the cold fee set in."

They pull over under the guise of eating.

Ben is upset he never told his mother about Elsie.  To get married without here there is nearly unthinkable.  Elsie is worried it's because he doesn't want to marry her.  She feels her whole life, her whole future, slipping away.  He insists he does want to marry her.  She calls him a coward for not telling his mother sooner.  He is afraid they're rushing for no reason.  She wants to rush into it, it feels that good.  She knows that when they leave the restaurant they'll either drive to Nevada and get married, or home to Orange County.

***Bloggers note***

The novel, Forever Interrupted is a fairly simple read that enchants you right away.  Every page leaves you longing for the next bit of the story, the next heart-touching moment.  Each character poses a very different point of view, and as a reader, you begin to sympathize with each one, at different moments, for very different reasons.  The unexpected love and the importance of family are key to this novel's theme.

Spoiler: keep the tissues handy.

Click here to purchase Forever Interrupted

Title: Oryx and Crake Author: Margaret Atwood

The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman.  When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death.  He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people onced lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary.  As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier.  How did everything fall apart so quickly?  Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories?  Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.

Jimmy's family works and lives in a walled Compound protected by the dangerous CorpSeCorps and run by OrganInc Farms.  Jimmy's father works on a project designed to grow 'assortments of...human-tissue organs in a... pig host.  Organs that would transplant smoothly and avoid rejection, but would also  be able to fend off... microbes and viruses, of which there were more and more strains every year.'

Life for Jimmy is good, safe, comfortable.  He's grows up as any other child would, completely oblivious to what's really happening in the world in which his parents do business.  Soon Crake, a boy who turns out to be Jimmy's new best friend, arrives on the Compound.  The boys spend all their free time together playing computer games, and watching movies online, including live executions, assisted suicide and of course, porn.  The boys stumble across one website that kept them coming back: HottTotts, a sex-kiddie site.  There they see Oryx for the first time.

'None of those little girls had ever seemed real to Jimmy - they'd always struck him as digital clones - but for some reason Oryx was three-dimensional from the start.'

Crake prints an image of her face for him, her gaze piercing directly into the camera, 'right into Jimmy's eyes, into the secret person inside of him.  I see you, that look said.'

As the boys grow up they are divided into two basic groups that had been previously engrained on their society.  Crake, easily at the top of every class, a genetic genius, is classified as having a mathematical mind, was far above Jimmy who is classified as the class clown.  Crake goes on to be a genetic genius, Jimmy goes on to be a joke.  They are placed in separate schools, Crake, at the prestigious Watson-Crick, and Jimmy to Martha Graham, school for the perusal of the arts. 

'A lot of what went on at Martha Graham was like studying Latin, or book-binding: pleasant to contemplate in its way, but no longer central to anything.'

Jimmy and Crake keep in touch mostly by email and after a while Jimmy begins to doubt the friendship they'd once had.  He begins to think of Crake as someone he used to know.  Until he receives an invite from Crake.  Jimmy accepts, eager to see his friend.

'"Hi there, cork-nut," said Crake, and nostalgia swept through Jimmy like sudden hunger.  He was so pleased to see Crake he almost wept.'

Upon arriving at Watson-Crick Himmy can't help but notice how different their two schools are.  'Compared with Martha Graham Watson-Crick is a palace.'

Jimmy questions Crake about some of the work they're doing trying not to sound impressed.

'"This is the latest," said Crake.

What they were looking at was a large bulblike object that seemed to be covered with stippled whitish-yellow skin.  Out of it came twenty thick fleshy tubes, and at the end of each tube another bulb was growing.

"Those are chickens," said Crake.  "Chicken parts... twelve to a growth unit... That's the head right in the middle.  There's a mouth opening at the top, they dump... nutrients in there.  No eyes or beak or anything, they don't need those."

The thing was a nightmare... an animal-protein tuber.

"They'd removed all the brain functions that had nothing to do with digestion, assimilation and growth... They've already fog the take-out franchise operation in place... Investors are lining up around the block.  They can undercut the price fo everyone else.  ChickieNobs, they're thinking of calling the stuff,"' Crake explains.'

ChickieNobs?  Jimmy can't fathom eating what he imagines are equal to giant warts.  As his visits goes on he realizes that ChickieNobs aren't even the worst.

Crake begins to question Jimmy, probing the depth of his knowledge.  He begins to talk about conspiracy theories, even going so far as to suggest that both of their parents had known about and probably participated in immoral activities, namely infecting the population with manufactured virus's and bioforms. 

'"They're creating them," Crake confides..."They put the hostile bioforms into their vitamin pills..."'

Jimmy, who isn't as smart as Crake, can't quite grasp what his friend is telling him.  He puts it aside claiming to be tired.  After the visit Jimmy goes home, graduates from Martha Graham and forgets all about Crake's wild theories.  He finds a sleazy job in the marketing department for 'AnooYoo; Pills to make you fatter, thinner, hairier, balder, whiter, browner, blacker, yellower, sexier and happier.  It was his task to describe and extol to present the vision of what - oh, so easy! - could come to be... Once in a while he'd make up a work and never once got caught.'

After a few years of this and an endless string of married lovers, Jimmy finds himself restless and angry.  This is only alleviated by Crake randomly showing up at his door one night.

'"Let's go to the pleeblands," he says to Jimmy.

Accepted wisdom in the Compounds said that nothing of interest went on in the pleeblands apart from buying and selling... plus a lot of criminal activity: but to Jimmy it looked mysterious and exciting... on he other side of the safety barriers.  Also dangerous.  He wouldn't know how to behave...

Before setting out Crake stuck a needle in Jimmy's arm - an all-purpose, short-term vaccine he'd cooked up himself.  The pleeblands, he said, were a giant petri-dish; a lot of guck and contagious plasm got spread around there...

Jimmy had never been to the pleeblands before... he was excited... though he wasn't prepared for so many people... The pleebland inhabitants didn't look like the mental deficients the Compounders were fond of depicting... After a while Jimmy began to relax and enjoy the experience.'

After drinking and dining on rare delicacies Jimmy only barely remembers agreeing to come work for Crake, helping him with his highly respected and cutting edge projects.  Monday morning finds Jimmy being congratulated by co-workers and supervisors alike on his new promotion into Crake's prestigious world.  They 'had already been discreetly informed by Crake personally.'

'"My unit's called Paradice," said Crake.  "What we're working on is immortality."

Which had led to the concept of BlyssPluss... a single pill, that one and the same time:

1.  would protect the user against all known sexually transmitted diseases
2. would provide an unlimited supply of energy
3. would prolong youth
   

... There would be a fourth point which would not be advertised.  The BlyssPluss Pill would also act as a sure-fire one-time-does-it-all birth-cntrol pill, for male and female alike...

"So, basically you're going to sterilize people without them knowing it under the guise of giving them the ultra in orgies?" Jimmy asks.

"That's a crude way of putting it," said Crake.  "The investors were very keen on it, it was going to be global... You'll do the ad campaign."'

But Crake's real purpose is eventually revealed.  Under a secure air-locked dome Crake has gathered a group of the best, most advanced individuals he could find, the 'cream of the crop' most of whom had found themselves on the wrong side of the CorpSeCorps, or the government.  Crake offered them somewhere safe where they could continue their work anonymously on Crake's special and prestigious projects; the most important one being no less than Crake's life ambition.

'"I thought you were working on immortality," Jimmy asks after seeing the 'floor model' of Crakes latest work. 

Immortality," said Crake, "is a concept.  If you take 'mortality' as being, not death, but the fore knowledge of it and the fear of it, then 'immmortality' is the absence of such fear.'

It was all very top-secret and 'inextricably linked - the Pill and the Project.  The Pill would put a stop to haphazard reproduction, the Project would replace it with a superior method.  They were two stages of a single plan...'

Jimmy lives and works with Crake, and inevitably, Oryx, Jimmy's only true love.  Crake had rescued her, sort of speak, from a life of sex service to a life servicing him.  Both he and Jimmy are in love with her, though Oryx is certain Crake will never find out about her and Jimmy.  Jimmy is enjoying his time with them and the perks that come with being Crake's best friend.  Until one day the world seems to erupt in a new bioform attack, one that is devastating and deadly.  No one is immune, no one escapes, except Jimmy.  He watches Oryx and Crake die and is left alone locked inside the dome with the Project, waiting.

'For the first two weeks he followed world events on the Net... He lived off Crake's emergency stroes, the frozen goods first... Meanwhile, the end of[his] species was taking place before his very eyes... Finally there was nothing more to watch, except old movies on DVD.'

Jimmy knows that, at some point, he and the Children of Crake, must be set free from the dome to face a changed world, one where survival is not guaranteed.

Oryx and Crake is a descriptive novel focusing on the future of our world, the future of our technology, our ambition, our desire for power and greed for more, should it be allowed to continue unbridled.  It outlines the perils we as humans find ourselves in, trying to reconcile a healthier planet with the urge to buy more.  Orxy and Crake is a book that will not let you go.  You will think of it's implications long after the words are done.

Click here to purchase Oryx and Crake.

Title: The Right Thing Author: Amy Conner

Annie grows up to follow the path ordained for pretty, well-to-do Jackson women- marrying an ambitious lawyer, filling her days with shopping and charity work.  She barely recognizes Starr when they meet 27 years after that first fateful summer, but the bond formed so long ago quickly reemerges. Starr, pregnant by a powerful married man who wants her to get out of town, has nowhere to turn.  And Annie, determined not to fail her friend this time, agrees to drive Starr to New Orleans to get money she's owed.

During the eventful road trip that follows, Annie will confront the gap between friendship and responsibility; between her safe, ordered existence and the dreams she's grown accustomed to denying.

Mercy Anne Banks, or Annie, as she likes to be called, grew up, got married and continues to reside in the safe little city of Jackson.  Jackson is not a place to hide secrets, not in the fancy circles that Annie was a part of.  She is not surprised to find out that one of the men she grew up with had an extramarital affair with a girl who clearly grew up in a trailer park, making her trailer trash.  What does shock Annie is finding herself face-to-face with the woman who turns out to be nearly eight months pregnant.  The child a bastard from the affair.

What is even more surprising is the fact that the woman turns out to be someone Annie knows.

'Without thinking, the rite pertaining to social awkwardness comes to [Annie's] lips and [she says], "Do I know you?"

"I'm Starr Dukes," she says.  The look she gives [Annie] is as cold as the wind.  "It's sure been a long time."

It's been 27 years.'

Starr is Annie's best friend; a girl who showed up in grade one and vanished with her father halfway through grade two.  Annie can't just leave her alone in the cold so she offers the woman a ride home.  This gives them a chance to catch up.  The conversation quickly and predictably turned to Starr's condition.  She is determined to keep the baby and take on the fathers wealthy family through legal action if necessary.  Annie knows her friend stands little chance against such a formidable family.  Still, Starr was her friend and she needed help.

Starr claimed to have a friend holding $20,000 for her if she could only get to it.

'"Me and my baby are going to see that lying nickel son-of-a-bitch pays for every damn box of Pampers, every pair do soccer shoes, every trip to the orthodontist, and anything else I can think up.  I've got the money for the kind of lawyer I need. I just got to get to New Orleans."

"Starr, that's three hours from here, Annie exclaims.

"I can hitchhike if I've got to," Starr says, waving a dismissive hand.'

Even though she hasn't seen Starr for nearly 30 years Annie knows she can't just leave her stranded.

'"All right! I'll drive you..."'

Annie gives in easily though she knows it's not going to be that simple.  All she has to do is convince her husband that she is far too sick to join him at his business dinner that night.  She hates lying to him but knows he'd never allow her to help as their social life would be on the line, associating with the likes of Starr Dukes.

She somehow convinces him that she's too ill to go to dinner, but not so ill that she needs him to check up on her.  She hopes her deception will leave her absence undetected.  6 hours there and back and only a few more to pick up the money Annie prays her actions will remain hidden as Starr navigates them through the old neighbourhoods of New Orleans until they come to the fair grounds where Starr's mysterious friend lives.

Inside Starr helps herself to some freshly baked Snickerdoodles.  The mere sight of them make Annie's mouth water.  Determined not to have one she silently sips her coffee until a moment comes where Annie is alone in the kitchen and cannot resist a brownie.  She shoves it in her mouth before her friends come back and too late notices something strange about the treats.

"It tastes a little strange, as though Bette's recipe is a foreign one... [Annie] chews thoughtfully for a minute and can almost identify the herby aftertaste..."

She feels as if she should sit down or get some air and chooses the latter. She stumbles out the front door and nearly lands flat on her face.

'"Hey, watch yourself."  A strong, warm hand catches [her] elbow another across the small of [her] back, steadying [her.]'

In spite of her best intentions, and because of her influenced state, Annie lets this handsome stranger, Ted, lead her off to look at the horses he takes care of.

'Without thinking [she stretched] up on [her] tiptoes to give him a kiss on his stubble-covered jaw for being such a nice man, but at the same time Ted [turned] his face down to mine like he [wanted] to ask [her] a question...[her] mouth folds into his mouth...he feels so wonderful so amazing...[she] dare not let go.'

After a while, as the two try to make chit-chat, Ted offers to take her back to Bette's.  Thinking Starr and she still have time to get home before her disappearance is noticed, Annie returns to the trailer only to find that her car is missing.

'"Starr took your car and went back to Jackson.  You we're gone for...over and hour, and we didn't even know where you'd gone.  She said to tell you it couldn't wait," Bette explains.'

So Annie, stranded without any money, is devastated and alone in the middle if the night.  Luckily Ted is able to give her a ride.

'"He's one of the good guys, hon," Bette offers.'

Annie accepts and on the way they talk about it all; religion, politics, money, but it isn't long before Annie breaks down into a sobbing puddle of tears from exhaustion and disappointment.  She folds into Ted's arms for comfort.

'"Are you sure, Annie?" he says, low-voiced and hoarse.'

Annie knows that she is, even though she vows to never tell her husband.  When he gets her safely home she is dismayed to see her mothers cream-coloured Lincoln and a black and white police car parked in front of her house.  It's early, nearly 6:00 a.m. and they know she's gone.  It's up to her to explain.

'[She] can't speak up because [she doesn't] know what to say, how to justify the unjustifiable.

And then, with a jolt of self-awareness...[she's] amazed to discover [she's] mortally tired of this...[she'll] be damned if [she] can stand living like this anymore, always wrong, always apologizing.

"It's too much," [her husband] admits.'

She knows she should go after him, but she doesn't.  It seems her marriage is ending.  After 13 years of living a life, a life where she's yearned for a child to make her marriage whole; after 13 years she's given up hope of ever having a child.... Until she finds out that she's pregnant with Ted's child.

With her old life in ruins Annie knows there's no going back.  That she must continue doing the right thing.

This book tells a poignant story of a reconnection between two women intermittently laced with touching stories of their brief friendship as children.  Delightful and thought-provoking, The Right Thing will leave you thinking about it long after you put it away.


Click here to purchase 'The Right Thing'

Title: Treasure Island Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Set in the eighteenth century, Treasure Island spins a heady tale of piracy, a mysterious treasure map and a host of sinister characters charged with diabolical intentions.  Seen through the eyes of Jim Hawkins, the cabin boy of the Hispaniola, the action-packed adventure tells of a perilous sea journey across the Spanish Main, a mutiny led by the infamous Long John Silver and a lethal scramble for buried treasure on an exotic isle.  

Jim Hawkins lives and works with his mother in the Inn his family owns and runs; the Admiral Benbow.  Here 'a brown old seamen' comes to stay.

"... a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred with black, broken nails, and [a] sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white."

This old sea dog asks Jim to, 'keep a weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg.'

No one of that sort ever visited the Inn until one day a sailorly man comes enquiring about his old friend; someone he calls Billy Bones, the captain.  Jim is wary of the stranger, but since he has two legs thinks nothing of it.

The captain isn't pleased to see his old shipmate, someone he calls 'Black Dog' but resigns to a private conversation.  It isn't long before the two men erupt in a fight, voices raised, cutlass's drawn and the stranger flees for his life.

It isn't long before the captain gets another visitor; an old, blind pirate who threatens Jim until he allows the him to meet with the captain.  The old blind man gives Billy Bones a piece of paper, blackened on one side.

The black spot.

The black spot is Billy Bones' undoing.  He drops dead right there.  Worried that the pirates will be back to ransack the Inn Jim warns his mother.  Together they search the dead man's chest, where he kept his only possessions, for money to pay for his stay at the Inn.  All they find are old, foreign coins and a oil parchment.  With no more time Jim grabs the parchment and he and his mother flee.

Just in time.  Pirates, scoundrels, call for Billy Bones and ransack the Inn.  Jim and his mother hide in the yard and escape certain death by the hands of those murderous, blood-thirsty pirates who cannot seem to find what they're looking for.

Jim hears the old, blind man swears that, "it's the people of the Inn... that boy."

Jim knows he's in trouble and clutches the parchment even tighter.  Jim prays that they remain hidden

It seems his prayers are answered for just then some revenue officers come charging on horses over the hill.  There is a scuffle, the blind man is dead and the rest of the pirates flee back to shadows of their ships.  After some investigation Jim discovers that in the parchment is a clearly marked treasure map.  Word gets out and the local Squire convinces a group of men, including a doctor and Jim himself, to suit up and ship out to find that treasure.

The Doctor warns the Squire to keep the true nature of the mission a secret.  "These fellows who attacked the Inn - bold, desperate blades, for sure - and more, I say, not far off, are one and all through thick and thin, bound that they'll get that money."

They make a pact and the secret is safe.

It's a few weeks until the Squire Trewlaney is able to finance the ship, but eventually word comes that they've acquired a schooner.

"You never imagined a sweeter schooner... name, Hispaniola."

With the help of a helpful old sailor, Long John Silver, they manage to put together a mighty fine crew with Jim serving as cabin boy.  Jim is allowed one night to say goodbye to his mother at the Inn but the next day finds himself in Bristol ready to sail off.  There Jim meets the charismatic and enigmatic cook, the man who helped hand pick the crew, Long John Silver.

Jim is worried at first because it is clear that the old sailor only has one leg, and the warning of Billy Bones still haunted Jim's mind.  But Silver turns out to be a charming and delightful individual and Jim warms up to him right away.

In spite of their pack the purpose of the trip, treasure, hasn't been kept very well and an unmistakable rumour that there is a treasure map on board make everyone anxious to leave.  They sail as planned on a course plotted with treasure in mind and it becomes clear that there is some mistrust between the sailors.  Though they find their destination as planned and without incident.

Until Jim, in a fortuitous blunder, overhears an incriminating conversation between Silver and his men.  They are planning a mutiny the likes that had never been seen in the history of his predecessors, or as Silver calls them, the 'Gentlemen of Fortune." 

Jim alerts the Captain, the Squire and the Doctor.  They agree it's best to continue with the expedition as if they know nothing, all the while preparing for attack.  They let some pirate men go ashore and Jim slips into their boat unseen.  As soon as he can, back on land, he dashes away from the pirates only to double back later with the intent to spy.  While watching Jim witnesses the men murder one of their own and in his horror and fear runs unseeing through the trees and marshes of the island.  

He runs wild until he comes across a man, or beast, or something else entirely.  It scares him to death and Jim actually contemplates returning back to the evil pirates.  But the creature is a man and it approaches Jim with a story so terrible and tragic that Jim immediately recognizes a friend.  The man, Ben Gunn, had been left alone, marooned, on the island for the past 3 years.  He swears to help Jim as long as he and his friends help him get off the island.

Meanwhile, the Doctor, the Squire and the Captain and whatever good men were left took a surveillance team to inspect the island themselves.  They come across a defence unit in which they know they can defend.  They do their best to load it with supplies, weapons, defences, and by the grace of God Jim is able to find them there and joins them in defending against the villainous pirates.

At first Long John approaches and politely asks for the map.  When he is refused he returns with his army and attack the stockade with the good men inside.  All seems lost as the pirates take the stronghold, but once the smoke clears Jim realizes that apart from one death and a few wounded, including the captain, the side of good has won.  Seemingly beat the pirates leave them alone.

As Jim sits and waits and grows increasingly restless, an idea grows.  He escapes the stockade to find the homemade boat Ben Gunn hid.  It is no more than a crudely made coracle that has no steering to speak of but that doesn't stop Jim from hatching another idea; use the coracle to cut the Hispaniola from her anchor.  Jim hopes that will beach the ship leaving the pirates unable to maroon the men.  With great risk, and expectation of death, Jim succeeds in his plan.

The next morning the Hispaniola pitches and yaws and sails erratically.  Jim suspects that there is no one on board.  With a little luck and a lot of effort Jim sacrifices the coracle and hangs onto the Hispaniola for dear life.  Once on board Jim finds one of the two men left to watch the ship is dead and the other badly wounded.  With no one to help steer the ship to safe waters Jim has no choice but to strike a bargain; save the man's wretched life in exchange for help with the ship.  Jim suspects that his life is at steak as soon as they are safe ashore.  The pirate will most certainly try to kill him once his use is gone.  Jim vows to be ready, but in the excitement of bringing in the ship he forgets to be prepared for an attack.  In one throw the pirate manages to pin a knife in Jim's shoulder.  Fearing death fortune intervenes.  The boat pitches and throws the unsteady and wounded pirate head first into the water.

Wounded but safe, Jim is determined to find his friends.  By the light of the moon he is able to make his way back to the stockade where he believes his friends are snoring away.  But to his chagrin the little dwelling is full of the villainous, bloodthirsty pirates.  They capture him and give him a chance to chose sides; them or die.

It's then that he gets a bold stroke of courage and reveals himself to the Gentlemen of Fortune.

"... here you are, in a bad way: ship lost, treasure lost, men lost; your whole business gone to wreck; and if you want to know who did it - it was I! ... As for the schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I that killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who brought her where you'll never see her more, not one of you.  The laugh's on my side; I've had the top of this business from the first; I no more fear you than I fear a fly.  Kill me, if you please, or spare me."

After a dazed moment from the terrible lot, impressed with his courage Silver calls out, "I like that boy, now; I never seen a better boy than that.  He's more a man than any pair of you rats of you in this here house, and what I say is this: let me see him that'll lay a hand on him - that's what I say, and you may lay to it."

And so he was spared, for the time being.  This only adds to the crew's restlessness and anger.  They request a private meeting without their appointed leader, Long John Silver.  When they return they denounce him as captain and hand him the black spot.  Jim fears that he and Silver are both dead, but somehow Silver manages to convince the crew that everything he's done and everything he's planning has been and continues to be in the best interest of them all.

This mollifies the crew.  Silver is reappointed as leader as he promises them silver and a boat to sail it to safety.  The men set out, determined to find the treasure.  Jim's hopes sink when he finds out they have the map; all they have to do is find the treasure.  How they got the map Jim cannot know.  He left it in the safe keeping of the doctor.  Perhaps he was dead?  Why else would the doctor give it up so freely?  Jim fears the worst for his friends and himself as he is taken with the pirates to pursue their lust of gold.

The story of Treasure Island is one we are all familiar with.  Full of exotic locations, descriptions and narrative the reader is pulled into a story of daring adventure on the high seas.

Click here to purchase Treasure Island from Amazon.com

Title: The Rosie Project Author: Graeme Simsion

Don Tillman has a brilliant scientific mind, but social situations confound him.  He's never had a second date.  And so, in the evidence-based manner in which he approaches all things, he embarks upon the Wife Project: a sixteen-page questionnaire to find the perfect partner.  Then in walks Rosie Jarman.

Rosie is on a quest of her own.  She's looking for her biological father, a search that a certain genetics expert just might be able to help her with.  Soon Don puts the Wife Project on the back burner in order to help Rosie pursue the Father Project.  As an unlikely relationship blooms, Don is about to realize that, despite the best scientific efforts, you don't find love: love finds you.

Our main character, Don Tillman, is a highly organized and intensely practical man, who is “thirty-nine years old, tall, fit and intelligent, with a relatively high status and above-average income as an associate professor,” who is having a hard time finding a wife due to his immediately apparent lack of social skills. His days are planned out to the minute and he likes things a particular way. We find out he has two friends, another professor, Gene, and his wife Claudia. Gene and Claudia have been trying to help Don with his mission to find a wife. To his dismay, “their approach was based on the traditional dating paradigm, which [Don] had previously abandoned on the basis that the probability of success did not justify the effort and negative experiences... [He] never found it easy to make friends and it seems that the deficiencies that caused this problem have also affected [his] attempts at a romantic relationship.”

One night Don is obliged to replace Gene as a guest lecturer. The topic, Genetic Precursors to Autism Spectrum Disorders. The talk goes well, at least according to Don's observations, which are more than less conventional than the observations from other, less socially awkward individuals. Don decides the whole event is a success as one point sparks an idea so remarkable that he insist on clearing his schedule to develop it.

He has long assumed that he will one day find a wife, but his incredible lack of social manners has thus far made this feat impossible. Since dating doesn't work for him he must find a suitable alternative.

A questionnaire!

He is excited to talk to his friends about his new project. He receives excellent feedback.

'[It] was exactly the sort of input [he] was looking for. Subtle nuances of language that [he] is not conscious of.'

They suggest he test his questionnaire 'in the field' in addition to posting it online.

'[Don] returned to the dating process that [he] though [he'd] abandoned forever. On Claudia's advice, [he] had memorized the questionnaire to incorporate [the questions] subtly into conversation,' instead of bringing the entire questionnaire on the date. The only problem is his lack of subtly. Still, with her advice he manages to put his inquiry to good use and deducts through some strategically offered questions that one, 'very nice,' lady is simply not someone with whom to have a 2^nd or 3^rd date.

It's not very long before women start submitting the questionnaire. Gene inquires as to how many and is shocked and impressed at the volume. 'The actual total was greater than [Don] had told him, as [he] had not included the paper questionnaires. 304.'

Gene insists on choosing some of the women for Don to ask for dinner. Don argues that none of the women are suitable.

'“You don't think you're setting the bar just a tiny bit high?” his friend asks.'

'[Don] pointed out that [he] was collecting data to support life's most critical decision. Compromise would be totally inappropriate.'

Assuming Gene has sent her on account of the Project, Don asks a women to dinner. Her name is Rosie. Surprised at his offer she nonetheless accepts and names a venue. As usual, he arrives on time and finds himself socially incompetent in a bad situation before she's even made an appearance. Luckily, she is adept in handling the situation and they are allowed to leave without the proposed action of calling the police.

Since the dinner plans were ruined Don has no choice but to ask her back to his house for a meal (since eating at home would've been the next scheduled task.)

Back at Don's house Rosie can see how scheduled his organization really is. She takes the liberty to examine and go through his personal belongings. She is amazed at the extent of his meticulous scheduling system. Instead of being intimidated by it she offers him ways to work around the delays. Originally annoyed by her intrusion he begins to welcome her help going so far as abandoning all previously scheduled rules for that Tuesday evening and on top of that even making it seem like a joke.

Even with her variations to his schedule Don see's many flaws with her compared to his questionnaire. At the end of the meal he is almost relieved that he'll never see her again. She caused too much of a disturbance as it was.

In spite of his insistence to never see her again he decides that knowing her may add a benchmark to his Wife Project and since the project has found no matches to date he thinks he could spend more time with her. He also realizes that his expertise in genetics could be beneficial to her quest to find her biological father. He accompanies her to collect a DNA sample from her most likely prospect and takes her back to the lab to test it that same evening. When the results come back negative Rosie is disappointed and insist on going for a drink. Drinks turn into dinner and Don finds that although his Saturday schedule has changed he is surprised to find himself having a good time.

This causes him to want to help her further. There are two more men who might be her father. However, finding a DNA sample proved much harder than Don anticipated due to his lack of social skills. The duo is forced to three counts of petty theft to gain a sufficient DNA sample from each of the two men. Don is shocked at his actions and can't believe what he is going to help this girl.

As he continues the Father Project with her he is beginning to understand certain truths about human interaction, satisfaction and the comfortable companionship he clearly lacks. When the next two DNA samples prove negative he tries to convince Rosie to keep trying, all the while wondering why he cares so much.

Unwilling to leave a problem so unfinished Don is compelled into researching the other potential candidates for the Father Project. He has the fortune of good luck when he discovers a picture and the names of the attendee's at the party the night Rosie's mother got pregnant. His luck continues when he sees a 30 year reunion scheduled in the next three weeks. He convinces Rosie to get a job as a bartender at the reunion so they can easily continue to collect DNA.

Rosie gives Don 'The Complete Bartender's Guide' and tells him to memorize it for the event. He spends hours doing so only to find that his bar-tending knowledge far surpasses the other staff at the event. Not only does he have a complete list of cocktails in his head, but the recipes to accompany them as well as room to remember every drink ordered in the entire room. He becomes a huge success even as Rosie is flustered by it all. Yet they continue as planned and collect all of the necessary DNA samples. Don gets to work on analyzing the data with no success in finding a match.

One night, over pizza, Don makes the mistake of asking Rosie about the Wife Project to which she knows nothing about. She reveals to Don that she is a student in Gene's class. She had originally come to Don to settle a bet. This compels Don to explain his motivations with the Wife Project leaving both parties under the realization that they had met and gone for dinner under false pretenses and miscommunication. Rosie is unimpressed, even angry at Don for the whole charade and demands to know whey he continued helping her. Without a good explanation Don says nothing. Frustrated and angry Rosie storms out to return the next day with an apology right before Don mentions one, perfectly suitable, candidate of the Wife Project, which Rosie is still annoyed about.

Not fluent in social interactions Don goes ahead and asks this new candidate, Bianca, to the upcoming faculty ball. She says, 'yes.' Gene advises Don to ask Rosie to the ball instead saying she's already going alone.

'“Rosie and I discussed the question of a relationship explicitly. Neither of us is interested.” Don explains.

“Since when do women discuss anything explicitly?” Gene asks.'

Regardless of his friends advice Don meets Bianca at the ball under the guise that he can dance. He finds himself siting near the dance floor at a table with Bianca, Gene, a few other members of the University and Rosie. It does not escape Don that she is absolutely stunning. Before he knows it he is alone with Bianca on the dance floor. He proceeds to embarrass and then alienate his perfect candidate. She abandons Don there on the spot with Rosie, trying to help the awkward situation. She succeeds and they proceed to have an amazing evening, without Bianca.

Later, Don and Rosie share a cab, but before Don can get home Rosie asks him upstairs to her house.

'[He] needed to make sure [he] wasn't misinterpreting her.

'“Are you suggesting I stay the night?”'

Even with clarification Don's complete lack of social understanding ruins the moment and he continues home alone.

The next work day Don finds Rosie with her friends at the University during study hall. He tries to reconcile the situation but only manages to thoroughly embarrass her. He leaves vowing to contact her later only to find she is avoiding his calls.

'“These things happen,” said Claudia. “You get involved with a woman, it doesn't work out...”

So that was it. [Don] has, in [his] own way, become 'involved' with Rosie.'

He thinks that maybe she will be friends with him again if he continues the Father Project and follows it through to a successful conclusion. Why only nine more samples to go Don manages to collect seven of those samples even if it means picking used tissue from the trash.

With the samples all coming out negative Don feels he has no choice but to fly to New York to collect the samples from the remaining two candidates. He somehow convinces Rosie to go with him. Shortly after they arrive they successfully meet the first candidate and his wife. leaving them with a few days to explore New York.

Rosie demands the first two days be under her schedule with the last two days for his. She takes him for breakfast, they see a play and enjoy a traditional Japanese meal. She takes him to a baseball game and back to a sports bar for drinks after. Don finds himself enjoying their time immensely. They spend his two days at the Museum of Natural History where Don does his best to give Rosie the 'guided tour' as was suggested by Claudia. They also manage to collect the remaining DNA sample and soon find themselves ready to go home.

Once back at the University Don prepares to analyze the last two samples when he finds out what Rosie is planning on doing with the information.

'“You're planning to expose him?” [Don] asked horrified.'

He refuses to continue if it means bringing someone pain. Rosie is infuriated and again storms out and proceeds to ignore his calls. In the days after her departure Gene points out that Don might be in love, which would explain the sadness that had fallen over him since Rosie had left. He asks Claudia for help with social skills as a way to impress and win Rosie back. Claudia helps him and he learns many new skills that he is eager to try out. He also gets a haircut and buys new clothes in an effort to look more like someone Rosie would want him to look like. He does many things to try to impress her and win her back all to seemingly disastrous effect. In the end though, this story is simply stunning in it's straight-forward depiction of a man, like Don Tillman, in love. You'll be astounded at how awkward, yet perfectly sensible Don is towards everything but will have you wishing for his 'happily-ever-after' in spite of his being weird and wired wrong. 

Click here to order 'The Rosie Project' from Amazon.com